Cartografías del dolor

Leer el cuerpo como geografía afectiva

Abstract

This paper examines the body as a psychic surface of inscription in adolescents affected by early trauma, through the clinical case of Mary, an eighteen-years-old patient. Her history of childhood sexual abuse, family violence, and repeated disavowals left a fragmented psychic organization, where self-injury and tattoos emerged as bodily ways of processing the unthinkable. Drawing on Ferenczi, Laplanche, Smadja, Doctors, Catz, and Bleichmar, the study suggests that recourse to the body can operate as a self-soothing procedure when psychic symbolization fails. Within this trajectory, tattoos may acquire a symbolizing function, attempting to create ego boundaries and continuity, in contrast to self-injury as an impulsive discharge of suffering.
The case highlights the transition from cutting to tattooing as a subjectivating shift: from discharge to inscription, from acting out to memory. The clinical importance of reading the body as an affective geography is emphasized, supporting the patient in constructing narratives that restore meaning where fragmentation and silence predominate.